Pitzer and stout are close, excited for Ant Santanielllo at 141, intrigued by Evans and McKay at 157 and 165(but not hopeful yet). 125 big Whole, 133(solid but no offense), Finn(has promise but needs offense),Luca neeeds a takedown that he can get on a top 10 guy(doesn’t have it), Heller will be solid but not nearly enough offense besides funk which is hard to win with at NCAA. Well see what the future holds. H2P
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS THREAD
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His problem is defense once a guy is in on his legs. He doesn't have much of a scramble game at all
Mac also slows down a lot as the match goes on. He seems to have issues scoring in the 3rd/OT, could be the cut playing a part as he looks massive at 197
Disappointed in the results but I really like our roster and youth. Offensively we need a lot of work and hopefully this doesn’t turn any recruiting targets off from the program
Disappointing ending not having anyone even in the blood round. Step back from recent years. The positive is it is a young team. I do like a lot of the team they have. Hope they can help them continue to progress.
I wonder if they change strategy on the difficulty of such a tough schedule.
I also hear Gavin stating in interviews they need to be more offensive. Wonder why that continues not to show in matches.
I wonder if they change strategy on the difficulty of such a tough schedule.
I also hear Gavin stating in interviews they need to be more offensive. Wonder why that continues not to show in matches.
we need a 125lb, not having a qualifier is killing Pitt. Also watching watters from WV be an all American as a true freshman, I’m waiting for that to happen at Pitt.
With the WVU getting better, the Big 12 the second best conference, and Quest School of Wrestling they will get some good wrestlers.
I absolutely admire what Cael has done but I’m so over watching Penn State win like this. God I wish Pitt could get there, lol.
Welsh into the finals. Another pa kid that you would like to think Pitt at least had a chance with
I think fans of all teams other than the nitters agree with you.
Watching the true March Madness the last two days has been amazing.
Jealous watching schools with more wrestlers and competing into day 2 and 3.
Seven programs had all 10 guys at nations. Five programs each had 9 and 8. Pitt followed with 7. Not far off. We are going to get there!
PA lead the tourney with 43 qualifiers. I counted 14 from WPIAL. Second was Ohio with 28 and then NJ at 26. We don’t have to go far to recruit the best kids in the country. Keep chipping away and get better everyday.
Enjoy the finals Pitt Fans we will be back
Jealous watching schools with more wrestlers and competing into day 2 and 3.
Seven programs had all 10 guys at nations. Five programs each had 9 and 8. Pitt followed with 7. Not far off. We are going to get there!
PA lead the tourney with 43 qualifiers. I counted 14 from WPIAL. Second was Ohio with 28 and then NJ at 26. We don’t have to go far to recruit the best kids in the country. Keep chipping away and get better everyday.
Enjoy the finals Pitt Fans we will be back
Believe Hidlay is 0-3 vs Brooks. Would love to see him get the first win.
In the last 50 years, only 7 teams have won team titles and two only have one. This is a sport dominated by a few.
The gap between OSU wrestling and Pitt wrestling is almost as big as the gap between OSU football and Pitt football.
I would have to say the most improved wrestler was Solomon. The gapped he closed with Parco between matches was impressive. Parco should have probably been hit with another stall call too.
In terms of Ohio State unfortunately, they have the financial backing and the administrations backing to succeed. I know this personally because my old boss, his name is on their new wrestling complex(Brad Jennings), and he donates seven figures routinely to the program and is there every single match and goes on vacations with Tom Ryan.
True but we did take out OSU this year. I was there to enjoy it. Best Pitt memory of the year.
Kasak vs Watters in the battle of PA true freshmen wrestling for 3rd.
Watters loves the big stage. Already avenged two loses from earlier this year both by major decision. He is on a roll. Pinned the 2 seed as well.
You’ll never see me cheer for anything West Virginia, but I’m absolutely cheering for him. He is very fun to watch.
I got to see Rocco Welsh several times in high school, and yeah, it’s frustrating to see yet another kid who got away. It’s confounding that so many talented WPIAL kids do well at nationals and aren’t wearing Pitt singlets.
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So is everyone done in the wrestle backs? I’m watching ESPN consolations and see no Pitt wrestlers.
We went 2-14 against wrestlers who won at least one match. We did manage to go 7-0 against wrestlers who went 0-2. We have no All-Americans. No one made it to the blood round. We will finish, at best, tied for 25th. We scored less than a dozen takedowns in 23 matches. Or what Aaron Brooks calls an average match.
Yesterday, after the 0-7 debacle in the opening round, some posters raised serious questions about Gavin and his staff, both with respect to their coaching and their recruiting. I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Today, it’s “I like our youth and I like our roster.” It’s “Luca can be a top ten guy if he develops some offense.”
I don’t know if that's true. He doesn’t look like he’s going to ever be much better than he is to me. But, what in the history of Gavin’s years here makes you think he might develop offensively? Cole? Mickey? This tournament? Stout looks like the one redshirt frosh who has offensive potential, but his defense is mediocre.
Hey, I liked some of the WPIAL freshmen I saw wrestle. Ty Watters from North Allegheny. Rocco Welsh from Waynesburg. Both true freshmen and we didn’t lose them to PSU either.
Flynn has been at WVU as long as Gavin has been at Pitt. A program with zero wrestling history or tradition. He has 2 AAs this year. With very limited resources and high academic requirements, Santoro, as usual, has multiple AAs at Lehigh. This year, it’s 3. I don’t see a future AA on Pitt’s roster. Maybe Ant, but then we haven’t seen him wrestle yet.
Little Rock — yes, Little Rock — advanced two wrestlers to the blood round and will finish ahead of us. But, we did beat Columbia by .5 points.
Next year, Stanford will join the ACC. We will be 5th best in a league with 6 scholarship schools. Victory Heights isn’t going to resurrect this program and the lack of Victory Heights isn’t the cause of the decline. It appears most of the posters here are fine with that. In the thread about how Pitt has missed out in every top wrestler in the WPIAL classes of 2024 and 2025, there was a poster who said, in substance, that he was okay with that because our roster is stacked at most of those weights. Our roster may have bodies there but it isn’t stacked with future AAs anywhere except maybe 133 and Hwt, and neither of those is anything close to a sure thing. Yet, there was zero pushback against that post. Does anyone believe we didn’t recruit Welsh because we had Luca or didn’t recruit Watters because Finn was teansferring from UNC?
Today, it seems like all of the problems which were so apparent on Thursday have been forgotten.
As long as there is no pressure on Lyke to make or force changes, she won’t. She has done an excellent job of keeping the good coaches we have here, like Fisher. But, as one poster here wrote on Thursday, her actual hires have, Waldrum excepted, ranged between mediocre and awful. That’s why it was so frustrating when she reneged on the committee’s deal with Santoro. He was a slam dunk.
Yesterday, after the 0-7 debacle in the opening round, some posters raised serious questions about Gavin and his staff, both with respect to their coaching and their recruiting. I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Today, it’s “I like our youth and I like our roster.” It’s “Luca can be a top ten guy if he develops some offense.”
I don’t know if that's true. He doesn’t look like he’s going to ever be much better than he is to me. But, what in the history of Gavin’s years here makes you think he might develop offensively? Cole? Mickey? This tournament? Stout looks like the one redshirt frosh who has offensive potential, but his defense is mediocre.
Hey, I liked some of the WPIAL freshmen I saw wrestle. Ty Watters from North Allegheny. Rocco Welsh from Waynesburg. Both true freshmen and we didn’t lose them to PSU either.
Flynn has been at WVU as long as Gavin has been at Pitt. A program with zero wrestling history or tradition. He has 2 AAs this year. With very limited resources and high academic requirements, Santoro, as usual, has multiple AAs at Lehigh. This year, it’s 3. I don’t see a future AA on Pitt’s roster. Maybe Ant, but then we haven’t seen him wrestle yet.
Little Rock — yes, Little Rock — advanced two wrestlers to the blood round and will finish ahead of us. But, we did beat Columbia by .5 points.
Next year, Stanford will join the ACC. We will be 5th best in a league with 6 scholarship schools. Victory Heights isn’t going to resurrect this program and the lack of Victory Heights isn’t the cause of the decline. It appears most of the posters here are fine with that. In the thread about how Pitt has missed out in every top wrestler in the WPIAL classes of 2024 and 2025, there was a poster who said, in substance, that he was okay with that because our roster is stacked at most of those weights. Our roster may have bodies there but it isn’t stacked with future AAs anywhere except maybe 133 and Hwt, and neither of those is anything close to a sure thing. Yet, there was zero pushback against that post. Does anyone believe we didn’t recruit Welsh because we had Luca or didn’t recruit Watters because Finn was teansferring from UNC?
Today, it seems like all of the problems which were so apparent on Thursday have been forgotten.
As long as there is no pressure on Lyke to make or force changes, she won’t. She has done an excellent job of keeping the good coaches we have here, like Fisher. But, as one poster here wrote on Thursday, her actual hires have, Waldrum excepted, ranged between mediocre and awful. That’s why it was so frustrating when she reneged on the committee’s deal with Santoro. He was a slam dunk.
I agree. I think if he were to wrestle Dylan Chappell again he would have a dominant win and probably tech him. Excited to see what he can do in the future.
I don’t agree with everything that you said, but I do with a lot of it and I was definitely one of the ones that have said that our coaching staff is not good enough at recruiting and development. because there is not a lot of proof of kids who have developed over the years. Changes do need made or continue to have the same results.
I think this year Pitt was really young and inexperienced but next year Dylan evans will fill in for 157. He’s the best and I definitely see him to0 three. His pace is on another level and I can see him overwhelming the top guys Levi Haines and David Carr. #machinegunmindset #Stud #Dylan
I am not sure I have said this before on here but I am not a diehard Pitt fan. I am a PA wrestling fan who roots for the PA kids wherever they are, who also has a few connections to some college coaches in the state, and who enjoys talking wrestling so my perspective is a little different with that said I agree with you on some points and disagree on others. Also, I have been to more UPJ duals than any other program.
Lyke made a mistake with Santoro's deal who would have been a great hire but even if Santoro was hired Pitt is not competing with OSU who has better facilities, coaching staff (they have a 4 timer), history, RTC, and NIL. WVU does not have much of a wrestling history but they made a very good hire in Tim Flynn who was very successful at Edinboro and as long WVU has a coach who cares they will be a player with most SW PA kids because of Akerly and his connection to WVU.
Pitt is very much in danger of slipping further behind in the ACC because of Stanford and because Koll will improve UNC.
With everything I have said I would not bail on Gavin just yet but Pitt has to look at their current assistants and ask if they can do better. Pitt also needs a serious investment into the PWC but I have no idea where that investment comes from.
Gavin is from the Lehigh Valley but for some reason he can’t get any kids from that area
The commitment needs to come from the alums and fans of that particular sport.
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